Heroes of Newerth

Heroes of Newerth

Heroes of Newerth (commonly known as HoN) is a free-to-play science fantasy, action real-time strategy game developed by S2 Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The game was heavily inspired by the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne custom map, Defense of the Ancients and is S2 Games' first game title in the Dota genre. The game was released on May 12, 2010 and re-released as a free-to-play game on July 29, 2011. Heroes of Newerth runs on the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.

Developer(s)	S2 Games
Publisher(s)	S2 Games SEA Garena
Designer(s)	James Fielding Alan Cacciamani Richard Liu Pu Liu Brent Wiedmer
Artist(s)	Jesse Hayes Joseph Crack Bruce Glidewell Aaron Holley Jeremy Moe Carlos Muchaca Ari Targownik
Composer(s)	Arnej Šećerkadić
Engine	K2 Engine
Version	2.2.7
Platform(s)	Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Release date(s)	May 12, 2010
Genre(s)	Action RTS
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Media/distribution	Digital Distribution
System requirements 2.2GHz processor 1GB RAM GeForce 5, ATI 9x00, OpenGL 2.0 compatible (Linux and Mac) video card Linux/Windows XP/Vista/7/Mac Network Connection Required[1]

Heroes of Newerth puts two teams of players against each other: the Legion and the Hellbourne. Both teams are based at opposite sides of a map. The standard map is split into three continuous 'lanes' (Two in one of the lesser-played maps), running from one base to the other. Defensive towers are positioned evenly through each lane, until the lanes terminate at a team's base. Bases are strongly defended with extra defensive towers, and buildings from which units spawn. These units, termed 'creeps' are spawned every thirty seconds, and run along their lane until they meet opposition - which they then attack. Victory is achieved when one of the teams manages to push into the base of the opposing team, and destroys their primary structure; the Hellbourne's 'Sacrificial Shrine', or the Legion's 'Tree of Life'. At any point after fifteen minutes has expired a team can choose to concede defeat - this loses them the game and requires a unanimous team vote to pass or a 'four of five' vote after the thirty minute mark.
Players on each team choose one of 93 heroes, featuring a variety of abilities and advantages to compensate for any shortcomings. Players control a single hero from a top-down perspective, while common features of real time strategy games such as base management and resource collection are removed. Every hero has four abilities that may be acquired and upgraded as the hero gains experience and levels up. Experience is gained for being within the range of enemy units when they are killed. The maximum level a hero may achieve is 25 and the experience required per level gain increases with each new level. The player obtains gold though periodic income and combat experience, which is used for buying various items for his or her hero. All heroes involved in the death of an enemy hero are rewarded experience and gold, while the hero that has dealt the killing blow receives the greatest portion of gold. Players may terminate their allied creeps and structures when they are almost dead to prevent the enemy from placing the killing blow and gaining additional gold and experience. These technique is referred to as "denying". When a hero dies, he loses a part of his gold and after a certain amount of time, based on their level and number of deaths, respawn at the well located in their team's respective base.
Once started, average game length is around 40–50 minutes. Players on the winning team gain ranking points while the other team loses them. Ranking points are used to place players on the ladder system and it has no influence on game play- players are always on equal footing despite their ranking.

A game of Heroes of Newerth in progress. A player's hero chases after a fleeing enemy hero.

Development

In October 2009, Associate Game Designer Alan "Idejder" Cacciamani claimed that Heroes of Newerth had been in development for "34 months, but the first 13 were spent on engine development. The entirety of assets, including maps, items, heroes, and art were made in 21 months."
New features, balance changes and new heroes are regularly introduced with patches. Most game mechanics and many heroes in Heroes of Newerth have a direct correlation from Defense of the Ancients. The additions that differentiate Heroes of Newerth from Defense of the Ancients are features independent from game play; such as tracking of individual statistics, in-game voice communication, GUI-streamlined hero selection, game reconnection, match making, player banlists, penalties for leaving and chat features. Several features added via updates include a Hero Compendium (a list of the heroes in the game with detailed statistics about them), the ability to set a "following" trait on a friend which makes the player join/leave the games that a friend joins (similar to the "party" feature in other games), an in-game ladder system, and a map editor. The game uses S2 Games' proprietary K2 Engine and a client-server model similar to that used in many modern multiplayer games.
Heroes of Newerth was in beta from April 24, 2009 until May 12, 2010. Throughout this time, over 3,000,000 unique accounts were registered. S2 Games used a Facebook fan page and word of mouth to attract players to the game. Many people who had bought one of S2 Games' previous games also received an invitation to the game through their registered email.
On August 22, 2009, the pre-sale of Heroes of Newerth began for members of the closed beta. Players who purchased the game at this time received additional benefits, including name reservation, gold-colored nameplate, gold shield insignia, and an in-game taunt ability. Open beta testing for Heroes of Newerth began on March 31, 2010, and ran until May 12, 2010, when the game was officially released.
S2 Games released Heroes of Newerth 2.0 on December 13, 2010. Features included in the update were casual mode, a new user interface, team matchmaking, an in-game store, and an offline map editor.^[15][16] Microtransactions were also introduced via the in-game store with the use of coins. Coins can be used to purchase cosmetic changes within the game, such as alternative hero skins, avatars, and customized announcer voices. The in-game currency can either be purchased with real life currency or earned via Matchmaking games.
S2 Games released Heroes of Newerth as a free-to-play game on July 29, 2011. Accounts that were purchased before this date retain access to all content and updates without additional charges. Accounts made after this have 15 free-rotating heroes to choose from, the 15 heroes rotate every week. These accounts only have access to the game mode All Pick. Through purchasing coins or earning them in play, players can purchase the ability to use additional heroes. Players must pay for tokens to play additional game modes, so that they may temporarily have the hero pool available to provide balance in hero selection.

Reception

Heroes of Newerth currently holds a metascore of 76 out of 100 from Metacritic indicating "Generally favorable reviews". As of February 2011, the game has sold over 400,000 copies, had over 12.3 million downloads, and averages more than 230,000 players per day, with the number of concurrent users online at any given time peaking at 50,000+. Laura Baker, the director of marketing for S2 Games, has also said that both the "Mac and Linux clients have done well for us."